Without Words
by BatBLady
Summary: PG13 just to be safe. SND story taking place many many years after the series. Mostly about Vincent and Catherine's children and their adventure to save their world.


I do not own anything that is known with the original cast. All other characters are mine. Devin is not the Devin everyone knows, I just like the name.

Without Words 1

Here in this world there was no need for books. Holograms and speaker-pads made up for what the children of this world lacked in the adventures of books. All but one; one who wanted something beyond what the electronic gizmos could give him. And as he carefully made his way past the laser alarm system, he could see the objects of his desire. Ahead of him, a wall was lined with the things that the elders called books. Because he expressed interest, one of their Order had taught him to read and write the old way. He knew that the knowledge to be held in books was beyond anything anyone had imagined. There had once been so many books in the world that they probably could reach to the planet Jupiter had they been stacked high. He had learned that too.

He had made this journey many times before. Finding the right books had been a task, but he had found some on the history of the world before the 'Accident' that the world had never really recovered from. Now the truth about that time was only known to barely a handful that he knew of and the majority of them were nearing the time for their deathbeds. He was going to be the last if he couldn't find someone else.

As he neared his prize, he thought back to the time of the 'Accident', the time that every boy in his early years was taught about, the time when hatred had blown the world upside down…literally. Atomic bombs blown up in every country had destroyed the world and left it an empty shell of what it had once been. His mother had been one of the survivors, who stood by and watched as his father had been roasted by the radiation of the blast. Now they lived in fear of even the slightest sickness. He himself was the result of the radiation, as were most of his childhood friends. Before the blast, at least what he had learned about that time, they would have been shunned as something called 'freaks'. Some of them could fly, others could become invisible, he and a few others could call fire: the one element that was most needed in this post apocalyptic world.

Reaching out, he grabbed for a book called 'Magic in the World'. He had read about magic before, it was something that most of the Old World had not understood and some had even feared. What he was able to do could have been considered magic, but he did it with only a thought, not the pyrotechnics that most 'Magicians' had used when performing their tricks. This book would be the last one in this collection on magic. Next week when he came back, he would start on something he had already read something on: the creature called a lion.

Returning to the window he had used to gain access to the building, he looked around and made sure that his laser was easily at hand. He knew that more dangerous creatures than lion's waited for easy prey in the piles of what had been the city. Half-men, half-something else entirely. They preyed upon those foolish enough to wander into their territory unarmed and alone. People gave them many names, but the only one that he paid any attention to was Cannibals. He knew what those were, people who ate other people, and he knew that if he ever was caught by a pack of them, his little laser wouldn't be able to do much damage.

Life was harsh in this world. People were scared. He wasn't really scared, he loved the adventure that came with everyday life. His daily routine began with picking up some breakfast from the nearest supplier. After returning to his hovel, he would make sure that his mother and sister had enough to eat before going off to the factory. At the factory, he worked the furnaces where they melted the metal that they collected; the first step in creating armor for the hovels. That's all they had now, hovels, he had read about fine houses from the time before and knew that what they had paled in comparison. More and more survivors were gathering to begin to form metallic villages among the remnants of once fantastic cities, thus the need for more hovels. All his factory did was create the outside of them, there were others that created the other parts of them.

After his day at the factory was done, he returned to the suppliers and picked up the evening meal. His sister would pick up lunch for herself and his mother after her schooling was over for the day. She was only nine and he nineteen. His mother hadn't had the strength to return to any work but to make clothes for her family after the 'Accident' had destroyed her life. His sister was able to lift heavy objects easily. She could already lift what he could with ease. That was another consequence of the 'Accident'. However talented they might be, they were weak in another skill or ability; his sister couldn't heal easily and he couldn't drink too much water, in fact he could go for days without water. He had watched a little boy who had just come into his ability to start fires die from drinking a glass of water. His tolerance was a bit stronger so he could drink more often, but that also meant that his power was stronger. It was both curse and blessing.

He was reaching the sector guards that tried to make sure that all the beasts, whatever they were, stayed out of living areas. Rolling up his sleeve, he presented his tattooed symbol to the watchman checking everyone. It was a geometric symbol that was broken up into seven sections, each colored either black or red. He hadn't learned what the symbol was, but he knew that it was what had been called geometric. He was quickly waved by and was soon nearing his home.

"Mother, Max I'm home." He called as he entered the hovel.

"Devin!" Max cried as she came running through the room to tackle him with a giggle. "Gottcha!"

Devin cringed as if in pain and toppled to the floor. They soon had their daily wrestling match on the floor and Devin wondered how much longer he could play with her like this without being hurt in the process.

"Okay kids, come on get up off the floor and get ready for dinner." His mother said as she picked up his shoulder bag from where he had dropped before Max's attack. "Go wash up Devin, you look a mess."

"Yes mother." He replied. He watched as her frail form returned around the corner with his bag. Max followed her into the meager kitchen and disappeared. He went to their one bathroom and washed up.

Max had been named after his father. That he knew. He had limited memories of the 'Accident' and he knew that it had cost his father dearly to protect them as he had. Max, or Maxine, had still been in the womb when it happened. He and his mother had gone into an underground bunker that shielded them from the blast, if not the damaging effects afterwards. His discovery of his power had almost made a building catch fire. He had been frustrated with having to learn the complicated arithmetic that would do nothing for anyone in the time being and was having a hard time at it. He had grown so angry that the paper had caught on fire…his and everyone else's in the room. From then on, he wasn't allowed inside a classroom with other children. He had learned to control the power over years of hard self training. Others weren't so lucky.

Max on the other hand had just grown up with her strength. When she was a little girl, she could push over a five gallon drum of water with ease. Once Devin had discovered that she also had a power, he tried his best to make sure that she didn't harm anyone with it. That was the ultimate rule in this desolate world. Never harm another human if you can help it.

Wiping his face with a towel made from an old shirt that both he and Max had grown out of, Devin returned to the kitchen where the small meal waited him. Bread, which was rare, was on the menu tonight and he quickly made sure that his mother and Max got the biggest pieces. He was satisfied with just some of the beef jerky and potatoes. He sat at his place around the little round table after his mother and Max had done likewise.

One thing that hadn't been lost nor forgotten in the aftermath of the Accident was religion. Even though he and Max had no formal religious education, they knew that somewhere there was something watching out for them everyday. Each night they offered the same prayer: Thank you for leading us through the day, we pray that your benevolence would carry our footsteps through the next and that this food will nourish our bodies for the work ahead. Amen.

Tonight was no different and after the prayer, they began to eat in silence. After about ten minutes, Devin turned to his sister.

"How was your day today Max?" He asked, pausing to let the food he had already eaten get to his stomach.

"Great! We got to go out on the playground today and Anthony and I played on the teeter-totter for a while." Max explained around a mouthful of bread.

"Don't speak with your mouth full." Mother said without looking up from her plate.

Max hastily swallowed the bite in her mouth before speaking again. "Sorry mother." She turned back to Devin. "Tonya climbed to the top of the jungle gym, but then got so scared to come down. Teacher asked me to go up and bring her back down. She said that I was something called a hero. What's a hero?"

"A hero, Max, is someone who does something to help another human being from being hurt." Devin answered, picking up his bread and taking a bite off of it.

"Okay. Then this afternoon when I picked up lunch, the man at the supply store gave me a cookie for being so brave." Max got up from her seat and ran to the bare cupboards, bare but for cobwebs and plates. She jumped up to the counter and reached into the cabinet. "I saved some of it for you Devin." She had a small piece of chocolate chip cookie in her hand.

Devin lifted the tiny corner of cookie from his sister's hand. "But this was your reward." He held it between his forefinger and thumb with it still facing his sister.

"I want you to have it big brother." Max replied in the way that made it unable for him to deny her anything.

Devin nodded and placed the cookie in his mouth. He let it sit on his tongue for a while, savoring the sweetness of it. It had been years since he had last tasted a cookie, or anything sweet for that matter. If bread was rare, sugar was extremely so. You were lucky to see a cookie one out of ten years of your life let alone eat one. Candy was never seen, unless you were the cookie maker.

"Thank you so much Maxine." Devin said. He rarely used her full name, only when he really, really meant something and never to punish her. She never needed punishment anyway. No child was taught anything was wrong so they didn't get any ideas in their heads to do something wrong. 

"Okay Max, time for you to get washed up and ready for bed." Mother said, standing up from her seat. "You can talk with your brother some more before bed."

Max and his mother went to the room where all three of the beds were. She usually had a basin of water in the room for cleaning before bed. Devin finished his dinner quickly, placing the crust of his bread inside a vest pocket to save for later, and began to clean up the dishes. As he finished, he heard some crashes outside. Voices were yelling, male voices…about four of them. He put the dried dishes up in the cabinet and grabbed his laser pistol out of his bag. He grabbed a flashlight and exited the house. He looked around and spotted four youths of about his own age surrounding a smaller being. They were yelling, punching, and kicking the poor thing and Devin felt that the being was a human. He came closer and began yelling at the boys.

"Come on, get outta here before the patrol finds you. I've already called them." Devin said as he flashed the light in one of the boy's eyes. He got the attention of the others and they were off quick as a flash. When they were out of sight and hearing, he came over to where a small cloaked form was huddled in a ball. It cringed away from him as he neared it.

"Hey, it's okay, they're gone." Devin knelt near it, reaching out his hand cautiously. "Don't be afraid, I won't hurt you."

The cloaked form turned it head as if to glance behind its shoulder. When it saw Devin, it gave a small sound of fright before it curled itself into a tighter ball.

"Come on now, no one's going to hurt you. I promise that no one will hurt you." Devin reached into his pocket where he had put the crust of his bread. "Are you hungry? I have some food here that you can have. I promise I won't hurt you." He reached out with the crust and the figure slowly turned over and looked at him. It was too dark to see whether the person was male or female, but they reached out and snatched the bread from his hand. The hand was gloved.

"Come on, you can trust me. I won't hurt you. My name is Devin." Devin explained watching as the person nibbled at the crust. "My home is just around the corner if you need somewhere to stay the night. My mother won't mind. Come now, you can trust me." Devin's knee was beginning to hurt from kneeling on the stones that made up the streets and walkways of his neighborhood. He was just about to give up and leave when the person spoke.

"Why?" It said, the voice was soft, feminine.

"Why do I do this?" Devin asked getting a positive reply. "I do this because I hate to see people hurt. If the patrol had been around, they would've been arresting those punks. Will you come with me?" He could see that she was clearly in desperate need of a cleaning. He doubted that she had anywhere to sleep in safety and the boys had probably found her in her one safe spot for the night.

She seemed to consider the idea for a few minutes and again Devin's thoughts drifted to the pain in his right knee. He wasn't sure whether he was bleeding, but it probably was less than what she had been put through tonight. After a few minutes, she nodded and began to stand. Devin got to his feet quickly and helped her struggle up.

"We're going to have to see what we can do about those injuries." Devin said as he placed her arm around his neck and let her lean on him as she hobbled. She did not reply.

They made their way toward the hovel. Devin leaned her against the side of the building while he opened the door. Once inside he took her to the kitchen and sat her down in his sisters seat. "Stay right here. I'll be back with my mother." He said and walked out of the room.

"Mother?" Devin whispered as he poked his head through the doorway of the bedroom. "Are you awake?"

"Shh…you'll wake your sister." She scolded as she came out of the room. "What is it?"

"Come." He began, telling her about the boys and the girl. "She needs help."

"Let's see what we can do." His mother replied. When she saw the girl, she did her best not to let her emotions show on her face.

The girl was wrapped in her dirty, patched, smoke black cloak, gloved hands resting on the table where she had laid her head on them. She appeared to be sleeping, but just as Devin and his mother came closer, she snapped her head up causing the hood of the cloak to fall down. The glimpse they were afforded gave them the knowledge that this was no ordinary girl.


End file.
